The gods have spoken; it's not SF Giants' year

Bruce Jenkins: The gods have spoken; it's just not San Francisco's year

Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, September 21, 2011

The names spoke to the bizarre unpredictability of a pennant race; Sands, Delgado, Theriot, Chambers. So many Septembers unfold this way, heroics rented out to the strangest tenants. For the Giants, Tuesday night left the strong hint of an expiration date.

The National League West race effectively ended, even with Arizona losing to Pittsburgh 5-3. The Diamondbacks have a 5 1/2-game lead over the Giants with the season ending a week from today, and that final showdown - a three-game series in Arizona this weekend - no longer holds much promise. Even the 1964 Phillies, those symbols of the choke job, didn't blow a lead this big in so short a time.

A flicker of hope remains in the wild-card race, but only among the wildly optimistic. Atlanta held its 2 1/2-game lead over St. Louis with a 4-0 victory against Florida, and the rampaging Cardinals - now two games up on the Giants - routed the Mets 11-6. So that's a 4 1/2-game deficit for San Francisco in the realm of the also-rans.

A number of grim episodes tormented the Giants at Dodger Stadium, none more glaring than their starting lineup against Clayton Kershaw. Manager Bruce Bochy effectively ruled out the sore-shouldered Pablo Sandoval against left-handed pitchers for the rest of the year, and with the Panda sidelined, Mark DeRosa was batting cleanup in what turned out to be a 2-1 loss.

That the Giants were shackled by Kershaw, a man perhaps on his way to the Cy Young Award, was the night's least surprising development, as he was 4-0 against them this season. He didn't allow a run until Chris Stewart, of all people, homered to left-center in the eighth inning.

How cruel, though, that somebody named Jerry Sands - an outfield prospect who failed miserably in an early-season trial with the Dodgers - crushed the solo homer off Tim Lincecum that proved to be the Dodgers' winning run.

There wasn't a lot of inspiring baseball being played. Andres Torres got thrown out stealing after reaching on an error to lead off the game (even the best ones run on Kershaw at their peril). Carlos Beltran and Justin Christian each got themselves picked off first base, and in the night's most crucial at-bat - two outs, two on in the eighth against reliever Kenley Jansen, with so very much at stake - Beltran struck out without taking a cut.

Some 3,000 miles away in Miami, the Braves were playing the Marlins in front of about 378 people, and fearing the worst. The night before, as a potentially game-ending chopper approached third base, Chipper Jones lost it in the lights - that's correct - to prolong the ninth inning and allow Florida's Omar Infante to hit a walk-off home run.

As a crestfallen Jones told reporters afterward, "It makes you think the baseball gods are turning their back on us."

The Braves had also had to deal with some bad news. Sore-shouldered right-hander Tommy Hanson won't pitch until the season-ending game against Philadelphia - and only if it's a meaningless warm-up for the postseason - and fellow rotation mainstay Jair Jurrjens (knee) is out indefinitely. Overworked relievers Craig Kimbrel and Jonny Venters, quite hittable of late after a season of dominance, weren't going to pitch Tuesday night unless a full-blown crisis arrived.

No problem. A 21-year-old right-hander named Randall Delgado, with all of 25 innings of major-league duty behind him, picked up his first win and some secondary relievers handled the late innings. The gods, apparently, had turned their attention back to the field.

If the Giants lost a ton of momentum at Dodger Stadium, the Cardinals lifted theirs to a new level, winning for the 11th time in 13 games after trailing the Mets 4-0. Albert Pujols is back, steamrolling toward yet another season of a .300-plus average with at least 30 homers and 100 RBIs. On Monday, the Cards closed out a series with their third win in four games against the Phillies, beating Cole Hamels and Roy Halladay in the last two games.

All of that could be expected from a solid team in a great baseball town. But there was pure magic Tuesday night in the pinch-hit heroics from Ryan Theriot (two-run double) and Adron Chambers (three-run triple) in the seventh inning. If Chambers' name rings no bells, it's because he's a September call-up who has yet to clear .300 in his five minor-league seasons.

The whole mess rings of castoffs, misfits and improbable heroics, a story that sounds familiar. It seems the publishing rights will find their October destination elsewhere.